Wednesday, 5 December 2012

Ghana Police team up with Military to beef up security during election

Ghana’s police have teamed up with the military to provide a “five layer
security force” as part of an effort to bolster security to ensure a
peaceful general election Friday.

“We have managed to put together a very encompassing security
arrangement in place to ensure that this very important election will
come and go peacefully," said police spokesman Cephas Arthur.

“We are putting one unarmed security officer at the polling station to
handle any security disturbance there,” continued Arthur. “The next tier
is the Patrol Team who will move from one polling station to another.
We also have the Reserved Unit, which has been attached to every
district and region, and we also have the Action Unit. If these units
can’t handle the situation then we will call in our friends from the
military as the last resort.”

Arthur’s comments came after security personnel voted Tuesday to enable
them provide protection against violence during the vote.

He said the police have been taking precautions to prevent any acts that
could undermine the election as well as the country’s stability. He
also said they are working with other security organizations to provide a
formidable security arrangement for the election.

Arthur says the agencies are ready to protect prospective voters in the run up to the election.

But, some Ghanaians have expressed concern about possible violence
during the vote despite a pledge by all of the presidential candidates
to encourage their supporters to eschew violence.

Supporters of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and main
opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) have clashed following accusations
and counter accusations of intimidation and harassment during campaigns
in the run up to the election.

“The campaign period also served as a test case and we are lucky to have
recorded very minimal incidents," he said. "We recorded numerous
incidents in the previous elections, but because this one has been
secured, just a couple of them occurred. It has largely been very
peaceful this time.”

He called on Ghanaians to have confidence in the police, saying they and
other security systems have “been able to secure and deliver safely
five different elections since 1992. We do it to the admiration of the
world.”